Ice (38 page)

I put my broken heart together and sat up. I wiped my eyes again, strangely feeling like a new person. I saw the snow covered world outside my window and wondered where Kavick was at.

Shouldn’t I think a little longer about this? You know where to find him. You can take your time.

I looked down at my chest, realizing that I had put Kavick’s necklace on earlier that day. I studied the rainbow flecks that glistened on the snow-colored stone.

The Magic Place.

I stood up and brushed myself off. I had to talk to Kavick. I could never forget him and I didn’t want him to forget me. But, no matter what happened, I would have to talk to Marcus, too. I would have to explain to him that it just wouldn’t work and that I didn’t love him anymore. I didn’t want to break his heart again, but I couldn’t stand to lead him on, either. How could I give him my heart if someone else already had it?

After I had calmed down and washed my face, I went back into my room and put my boots and coat on. I felt like I had to get it off my chest as soon as possible. It would plague my mind until I had talked to Kavick. I slipped my gloves on, walked into the living room, and asked, “Is it okay if I go see a friend?”

“Sure
,” Justin said surprised. “Are you going to see Kevin?”

I froze at those words, my glove half on my hand. “Yeah…there’s something important I have to tell him, and I need to tell him right away.”

“Want me to drive you? He could be in town by now. It’s too cold to be walkin’ out there, anyway.”

“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
It would undoubtedly be a long, cold walk to Kavick’s.

He turned off the TV and stood. “No, of course not.”

He put his coat on and grabbed his keys. In seconds, we were down the road. I directed him to Kavick’s house. I asked him to drop me off there, saying I would call him if I needed a ride home. He told me to have a nice time and left.

I headed for the old two story house. I could see Tartok staring at me from behind the screen door, arms crossed sternly. He was in black again. Is that all he ever wore?

When I reached the porch, Tartok opened the door to speak to me. “Kavick’s not here,” he said flatly.

That was all I needed to hear. “Thanks.”

I immediately turned from the porch and headed for the woods. I had no idea how to get to the Magic Place from those woods, but I figured I would just wander around until I did, as stupid as that sounded.

“Wait.”

I was nearly to the forest when I heard Anana’s voice. I turned around, surprised. Perhaps she wasn’t the best person for me to run into at the moment. Kavick had probably discussed with her what he was going to tell me. Surely, she had to have known what had just happened.

She ran past Tartok and down the steps to me. “I know where he’s at.”

My eyes widened. “You don’t mind showing me?”

“No.” She quickly started walking ahead of me.

“Thank you. Really, I can’t thank you enough,” I said as I followed her. “I had an idea where he was, but I wasn’t sure how to get there.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said, moving a tree branch away from our faces. “I heard him howling from th
ere the other night, so I checked on him. I knew he wasn’t with you, because he was howling practically all night, every night.”

Kavick had been spending his nights at the
Magic Place all week? The image of him howling to the sky made me feel heartbroken all over again. If only I hadn’t yelled at him so much, maybe he would have come to me sooner and things could have been different. If I hadn’t mentioned Marcus, maybe I could have persuaded him to change his mind.

I was starting to annoy myself with
regrets, so I told myself to just focus on what was actually happening.

After several minutes of walking, we came to a large expanse of snow covered ground that was free of trees. In the distance was a tiny figure that I knew had to be Kavick. I wondered how big the area was, since I couldn’t see the ring of stones that used to house our fires.

I looked to Anana who rested her hand on a tree beside her. “Go on,” she whispered.

She was going to stay behind, or go back to the house, I assumed. I felt extremely grateful for her helping me and for giving me the chance to speak with him privately, as well.

“Thank you so much,” I whispered back. I felt like I couldn’t possibly express the amount of gratitude I felt for her.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said again. I think she was hoping I could talk him out of marrying her. After all, if she couldn’t stand up to her father, she needed Kavick to call off the wedding for her.

I stepped out of the trees and into the open area. I couldn’t keep walking, though. He was so close, I couldn’t stand it. I had to run.

I started running as fast as I could in the snow. It was bitterly cold and the wind blew hard against me. I wished I had thought to wear my Laplander hat in my haste.

He steadily grew larger as I grew closer.

“Kavick!” I called through a sudden gust of wind.

He was standing in the open space of endless white. Snow covered everything. It was white as far as the eye could see. He turned around, his long black and white hair swinging as he turned. His blue eyes grew wide at the sight of me, and then they quickly changed to a look of relief. He darted towards me and flung his arms around me. I was surprised at how tightly he was holding me. It caught me off guard, and it took me a moment to react. I slowly put my arms around him, listening to his muffled voice as he spoke. His face was pressed against my shoulder and I could smell his woodsy scent from his hair in my face.

“I can’t do it. I can’t,” he said. I had never heard him sound so vulnerable before. He continued to cling to me, almost desperately, as if he were afraid I would slip away. His words became frantic and fast. “I can’t marry Anana. I can’t give up my humanity. I can’t just forget everything, everyone I’ve known. I can’t throw my whole life away.”

After another moment, he pulled away from me and took a few steps back, composing himself. He seemed calmer after rambling a little.

“I’m so glad,” I said with a little smile. “I came here to grovel for you to reconsider.”

I giggled a little. I don’t know where it came from, except that maybe on some level it had already sunk in that Kavick was going to remain my friend. It was hard for me to believe my body could feel happiness so fast, when I used to not be able to feel it at all.

He smiled widely at me, and I felt my own smile grow. It was like my heart had grown wings and had taken flight. I was so happy, in fact, that I was fully prepared to go ahead and tell Kavick how I felt. But, just as I was about to, his face turned serious. He suddenly seemed a little uneasy and I became worried by the change.

“Christine…there’s something I have to tell you
...”

The words seemed familiar and I instantly remembered when he had said them to me before; it had been when Marcus showed up at Justin’s house that night Kavick had so excitedly and so urgently wanted to tell me something that was extremely hard for him to say.

He clenched his hands at his sides into fists and released them. I saw his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed. He took a step to the side and back. At first, I thought he was just going to walk away, but then I realized he was just so nervous that he couldn’t stand still…or at least so close to me. He looked down at the snow for a moment and then at me again. I could see the conviction in his eyes. He was finally going to tell me. “Christine, I—”

Suddenly, there was a loud noise that rang out and echoed in the still, cold air. It was a familiar sound I had heard many times before and it didn’t take me long to place it: a
gunshot.

Kavick flinched and his eyes gre
w twice their size. His face went blank, all the nervous emotion from a second ago instantly erased.

I felt my eyes mirror his own as we stood there in a tense, shocked silence, both of us too scared to move, or even able to think.

Then he looked down at his chest and my gaze followed his own. He never blinked. His face stayed the same even after discovering the blood blossoming on his white sweater in the gap between his bear fur.

I heard myself take in a sharp gasp and my hands darted to my mouth.

He looked up at me. His face was still lifeless, never changing. His mouth hung open slightly like he was about to say something, but he never did. I don’t know if the pain was too intense for him to speak, or if he was in too much shock to know what to do. He reached for me with one of his hands, but fell to his knees before he could grab my arm. His fingers brushed against my sleeve as he went down and fell onto his back. His black and white hair fanned out beneath him.

I felt my eyes sting and knew I couldn’t hold back the tears I felt coming. I didn’t even try to stop them. My body started tremb
ling. I didn’t know what to do. I looked up, trying to spot the hunter.

To my surprise, I did when I looked behind me. And, to my horror, I knew who it was. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

A second later, I was able to think again. The first thing I was able to feel was anger and an overwhelming sense of hate despite the fact the tanned face in the trees hunched behind the gun was Marcus.

“YOU SHOT HIM!” I shrieked as loud as I could. “HOW COULD YOU?!”

I didn’t understand. I glanced down at Kavick again, feeling warm tears slide down my face. He was still looking off into nothingness with that horrible look of shock frozen on his face.

“YOU
SHOT
HIM!” I screamed again in disbelief again.

He put his rifle away, out of my sight. Despite the distance separating us, I could easily make out the shock on h
is own face. He gaped at me in a speechless way. Was he seriously expecting me not to be upset? How did he think I would react? Or, did he think I wouldn’t spot him?

I dropped to my knees and clutched Kavick’s body. For some reason, he was heavier than I imagined. He was dead weight in my arms and hung limp in my embrace. I struggled to hold him up to me. I didn’t know what I was doing. I wasn’t thinking. Maybe it was instinct, because I thought he was dead and that it could be the last time I held my dearest friend, the dearest person in my life.

“I HATE YOU!” I sobbed and screamed. “I
HATE
YOU!”

I cried harder than I could remember ever having before. I sobbed into Kavick’s hair. I
still didn’t know what to do.

Suddenly, I was jerked out of my own personal hell at the sound of snarling and howling. I looked up to see a gray wolf in the distance howling up to the sky. I wondered if it was Anana. I looked behind me to see another in the trees. It had Marcus pinned down to the ground.

Then there was Tartok in his identical fur cape and black attire taking Kavick from my arms. It was like he had appeared out of thin air. He looked stunned and he didn’t say a word. He laid Kavick back down in the snow, but propped his head on my lap. He felt for a pulse in his neck with one hand as he put pressure on the wound with his other.

I cried helplessly into my gloves. I watched him talk to Kavick. I was a pathetic, useless, tearful mess.

“Can you hear me?
Kavick!
” His voice was barely level. I could hear the underlying tone of worry grow stronger with each word.

“I’m sorry, Tartok…” I cried into my hands. I had to hide my face. There was no way I could look at him, and I couldn’t stand the sight of Kavick anymore.
“I’m so sorry…this is my fault.”

I pointed off to
ward the trees behind me and then peeked up to see more wolves coming toward Marcus. He had managed to get up at some point. He fired and I heard one of the gray wolves whimper. I watched it go down. I heard myself gasp again.

Tartok looked over at the battle, his mouth hanging open. I saw his mouth form a name:
“Suka.”

I felt even worse. I felt like my chest was collapsing and that now I was dying with Kavick.

The bigger gray wolf in the distance pounced to attack. Marcus never lowered his rifle. Another shot echoed in the air. He couldn’t hold them all back, though.

A reddish colored wolf and the smaller gray wolf that had howled for help earlier went at him. He walked backwards as he fired. He fell down as they attacked him.

But, there was someone else firing now. The shots kept coming while he was down. I looked around and saw three men in police uniforms in front of snow machines walking toward the scene where Marcus was. They all had rifles aimed to fire.

More wolves of various
colors appeared and came at them, rushing past Kavick, Tartok, and I huddled together. For a second, I thought they were going to run over us, but they darted past us for the police. One policeman shifted his attention from Marcus to the onslaught that was coming toward them.

“Let’s get out of here,” Tartok whispered hurriedly to me, tugging my arm to get my attention. I stood up as he carried Kavick in his arms. He ran into the trees away from the chaos that was going on near Marcus, and I followed behind him.

We ran across the expanse of white, gunshots echoing constantly. I hunched over as I ran behind Tartok. Kavick’s head bounced and an arm swung limply in the air. I picked up my pace so that I could lean over Kavick as a shield. Though there was no way I could protect him from every angle, I hunched over his head. I held it in my arms, working twice as hard to keep pace with Tartok. Kavick’s blank stare bore into my eyes and I wondered if he was even alive.

“You’re going to be okay,” I kept saying as we ran. My words were weak and breathless, barely audible even if there weren’t whimpers, snarls, and gunshots filling the air.

I looked back for a moment as we neared the edge of the forest. I saw a red wolf pinning an officer to the ground while a gray wolf tore at the arm that clutched his gun. The officer cried out in agony as blood stained the fur around the gray wolf’s mouth.

As soon as we went through the first few trees, I felt safer since the gunshots weren’t as loud. I felt like we were making good time and started to have a little hope for Kavick. It seemed like no time when we exited the forest. I could see the Miller’s SUV parked on the side of the road. I opened the door to the back and Tartok laid him inside across the seat.

“You stay with him, I’ll drive,” he said in a hurried breath as he raced around to the driver’s seat. I crawled in and quickly shut the door behind me. I crawled along the floorboard on my knees and started applying pressure to the wound.

I heard the tires spin in the snow
and ice as Tartok took off in a mad rush. I swayed, struggling to remain upright so I could keep my hands on the wound. Kavick’s blue eyes moved over slightly, looking up at me again. His face was still devoid of emotion, though.

“You’re going to be okay,” I sniffed. “We’ll get you to the hospital. Everything’s going to be fine.”

His mouth moved slightly. I quickly shook my head. “Don’t talk. Just stay calm and relax, okay?”

He closed his mouth a little, but it was still hanging open slightly.

Then I heard a blaring police siren. I heard Tartok curse and the motor roared louder. I looked behind us and saw a police car gaining on us. The red and blue lights flashed as they continued to tail us for several seconds.

Tartok made a sharp turn and I thought the vehicle was going to turn over. I hunched over Kavick again in case he started to slip from the seat. I prayed Tartok wouldn’t kill us all in a crash. For a second, I wondered if I would end up like my parents, a victim of a car accident.

I heard the engine roar even louder as Tartok continued to increase his speed. I peeked up for a second and saw trees pass us in a green blur. And then the white police car started to come up alongside us.

Officer Conner was behind the wheel.

I heard Tartok curse again as he saw the police cruiser continuing to gain speed. He had actually managed to pull ahead of Tartok. He crossed in front of Tartok and the white car whipped around in front of us until it was facing us head on. Tartok slammed on the brakes.

I quickly moved my bloody hands from Kavick’s chest and clutched the back seat so he wouldn’t fly out into the floor. He bumped against me and fell back into the seat. I immediately put my hands back on the wound.

“Get out of the vehicle!” I could hear Conner yelling from outside. I peeked out again. He had his pistol drawn, walking toward us.

Tartok’s jaw was clenched tight. He wouldn’t get out.

“Get out now!” he commanded, coming up on Tartok’s door.

Tartok finally opened it and stepped out. “Here to cover up another murder, only this time you’ll be the one committing it.”

“Put your hands up!”

Tartok slowly did as he was told.
.

Even though I ducked my head down, I heard him yell, “
You, too! Get out of the vehicle!”

I rose up, but kept my hands on Kavick. “Please, he’s dying!” I pleaded. “We need to get him to a hospital!”

“Not on my watch!” he said. His aged face was downright evil. He wanted Kavick to die. He wanted to kill all of us.

“Walk over to that tree,” he commanded Tartok. “Keep your hands up.”

“You actually think I’ll let you kill me?!” Tartok said, more furious than bewildered.

Suddenly, he grabbed the officer’s arm with both hands and twisted it. The gun fired, but neither was wounded by the shot. Conner fell to his knees, groaning, as Tartok yanked the pistol out of his hand and aimed it at him.

“I’ll kill
you
,” he said darkly. “I should after everything you’ve done to protect the hunters and cover up the murders.”

“It was your father who claimed it was an animal attack that
killed your family that day!” Conner yelled, as if trying to reason his innocence with Tartok.